Women pioneers in medicine

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Updated 11:44 AM ET, Fri May 10, 2013

Women pioneers in medicine13 photos

Women pioneers in medicine – CNN's "Life's Work" series features innovators and pioneers who are making a difference in the world of medicine. Click through the slides to learn more about women who have made significant contributions in their fields.

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Women pioneers in medicine13 photos

Women pioneers in medicine – Physicist Marie Curie (1867-1934) won two Nobel prizes. Her observations of radiation suggested a relationship between radioactivity and the heavy elements of the Periodic Table. Curie's painstaking research with her husband, Pierre, culminated in the isolation of two new, heavy elements -- polonium, which they named for Marie's homeland Poland, and the naturally glowing radium. Radioactivity has led to many advances in medicine.

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Women pioneers in medicine13 photos

Women pioneers in medicine – Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) was the first woman doctor in the United States. She said that she went into medicine because a close friend who was dying told her that having a female physician would have spared her the worst suffering.

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Women pioneers in medicine – Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) was England's first female physician. She opened the New Hospital for Women at the St. Mary's Dispensary in 1872, which was later called the London School of Medicine for Women.

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Women pioneers in medicine – Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was the first woman to obtain a medical degree in Italy. She developed the Montessori system of education for young children, which encourages exploration, expression and freedom from restraints.

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Women pioneers in medicine – Rosalind Elsie Franklin (1920-1958) is best known for her part in the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA. The British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer worked on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix.

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Women pioneers in medicine – Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), reformer of English nursing, received the Order of Merit for her tireless efforts during the Crimean War. She was the first female recipient of this honor.

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Women pioneers in medicine – American doctor Virginia Apgar (1909-1974) developed the first system of tests, known as the Apgar score, to assess the health of newborn babies. She was also the first woman to be a full professor at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

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Women pioneers in medicine – Sex therapist Ruth Westheimer has made a career of talking openly about sex, educating and advising the world about intimate matters. When she did her doctorate, "Nobody talked about contraception," she told Dr. Drew Pinsky in 2012.

Women pioneers in medicine – Francoise Barre-Sinoussi shared the 2008 Nobel medicine prize for the discovery of HIV. She is a virologist at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

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Women pioneers in medicine – Biological researcher Elizabeth Blackburn was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering (along with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak) how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.

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Women pioneers in medicine – Current U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin founded a rural health clinic in Alabama that kept running despite two hurricanes and a fire.